In the aftermath of the devastating Philippines typhoon that the United Nations climate chief has labelled “sobering”, nations launched a new round of talks for a 2015 deal to cut Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Christiana Figueres urged progress at the notoriously fractious talks amid a slew of new warnings of potentially disastrous global warming as a Filipino negotiator made a tearful undertaking to fast until the talks yield a tangible result.
“What happens in this venue is not a game. There are not two sides but the whole of humanity. There are no winners and losers, we all either win or lose in the future we make for ourselves,” said Ms Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“The recent very painful events of Typhoon Haiyan have reminded the countries gathered here of the urgency of coming to a resolution of how all countries are going to collaborate with each other to address climate change in a timely manner,” she added.
The meeting was taking place under the weight of many “sobering realities”, of which Haiyan in the Philippines was one, said Ms Figueres.
The French newsagency AFP reports the typhoon is feared to have killed 10,000 people, with Filipino delegate Naderev Sano among those anxiously waiting for news on family members.
“In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days I will now commence a voluntary fasting,” he told fellow negotiators as the 12-day talks got underway.
“I will refrain from eating food during this COP (Conference of Parties) until a meaningful outcome is in sight”, which could include pledges of money for a Green Climate Fund meant to disburse resources to developing countries for coping with climate change.
Mr Sano was given a standing ovation.
The UN has set a target of limiting global average warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, at which scientists believe the world can avoid the worst effects of climate change.
The world seeks to reach that goal by curbing emissions of invisible, heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels, which provide the backbone of the world’s energy supply today.
Last week, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) said the chances of meeting the two-degree goal were “swiftly diminishing”, while the World Meteorological Organisation reported that atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases hit a new record high in 2012.
In September, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted global surface temperatures could climb on average by as much as 4.8 degrees Celsius this century, a recipe for catastrophic heatwaves, floods, droughts and sea-level rise.
“We are clearly trending towards a substantial increase in the temperature of the surface across the globe,” IPCC chairman Professor Rajendra Pachauri told the Warsaw negotiators.
The UNEP has said that in order to contain warming to two degrees Celsius, greenhouse gas emissions must drop to 44 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2020 and then halve by 2050.
“We must get to global peaking of emissions this decade and to zero net emissions by the second half of this century,” said Ms Figueres.
AFP reports observers hope negotiators will do some legwork for the much-trumpeted agreement, due to be signed in Paris in 2015 for implementation five years later.
The Warsaw talks are scheduled to wrap up on November 22, at ministerial level.
